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Captain Hook
Captain James Hook '''(refers to himself as '''Jas. Hook and is more widely known simply as Captain Hook) is the main antagonist of the play, book, musical, and numerous film apaptions of Peter Pan. He is now one of the most recognizable literary villains in history. Hook's predominant feature is his hook in place of his right hand, a result of Peter cutting Hook's hand off and feeding it to a crocodile. Hook’s obsession with “good form” is a holdover from his higher education. It was ingrained in him from an early age that those who possessed “good form” often did not know it and that was why it was considered good form. Bad form is the highest insult of all to Hook and he spends much time fretting over his own possible fall towards bad form. Captain Hook often feels alone, especially when he is around his crew. He feels isolated and cut off from them, culturally and intellectually. His friends include Smee, his “number 2 man,” who is friendly and genial. They sail together aboard his ship, The Jolly Roger which is the terror of the seas. He received the nickname of Hook from a dastardly encounter with Peter Pan. Peter is everything that Hook is not—wild, untamed, with no regard for rules or proper form. And in a sword fight, Pan cut off his hand and then fed it to a crocodile. Hook now adores his iron claw, and often states that his children should be born with one of them instead of a hand. The fight with the crocodile brought more than a loss of limb to Hook. The crocodile developed a taste for Hook and follows him everywhere relentlessly. Fortunately, the crocodile also swallowed a clock and now goes everywhere with an audible “tick, tock,” earning him the nickname of Tick-Tock the Croc. There is nothing Hook fears more than Tick-Tock Croc, as he fears his death and fate are sealed with him. It could also be said that what Hook fears is not the Croc, but time itself and that the croc's tick-tick-ticking reminds him that time is catching up to him and he is growing older. Personality & Traits Hook like flowers and music. He plays the harpsichord. He likes to smoke 2 cigars at once in a holder that is seen in both the Disney version and the 2003 live action version. He actually does like —and celebrate—his iron hook; and does not miss his hand at all. He uses his hook as a weapon and is quite feared because of it. He likes to keep clean, dress well, and present himself nicely: he almost faints when Wendy is able to see that the ruffle on his shirt has been soiled, especially when she gives him a look of “such frightful contempt.” Hook dislikes Peter Pan— in fact, he despises him with a vengeance. He fears that Peter may actually on occasion exhibit unconscious good form, which plagues Hook because he believes it is the best form of all. Hook refers to it as Peter’s cockiness that puts him off, as that is certainly bad form to be cocky. He does not, however, hate all of the Lost Boys. The fact that Peter will not grow up—and is thus not affected by time whereas Hook is chased for it - fuels Hook’s wrath for him. Also, bad form. *Character Flaw: “Better for Hook,” he says of himself, “if he had less ambition.” Hook perhaps knows that he is an ambitious man who sets high standards, and that perhaps that will be his undoing. Ultimately, he can’t escape his fear of time and Tick-Tock, and he can’t rid himself of his hatred for Peter, a cocky, wild boy. Rather than be vanquished by “form better than his own,” Hook in the face of death chooses time (Tick-Tock) rather than form, perfection (Peter) and casts himself to the sea. He would rather be dead and surrender to time than fail to act nobly, suavely. He often says "Good form!" Hook is hot tempered and treats his crew like dogs. He is sinister, yet polite, and always exhibits elegant diction and signs of his good breeding; wich draws Wendy Darling to him. Hook is not an entirely unheroic character and does strive to act nobly throughout his ferocious acts. Hook is a talented fencer. Also, he is noted to be a man of “indomitable courage.” Hook is often rendered powerless in the face of the question of good form. He fears the sight of his own blood, which is of a strange color. This symbolizes his fear of dying. He fears Tock the Croc more than anything on earth; for him, Toc represents a fear of time—a fear of the passage of time and ultimately of death. He is afraid Tock’s clock will run down and then Tock will sneak up and take him. Hook feels he is being chased by time and that he must always stay ahead of it or his time will run out. His death comes in part from this fear, when Peter pretends to be Tock and sneaks aboard ticking like the crocodile. “In that frightful moment I think his fierce heart broke.” In their final sword fight together, Hook is surrounded on one side by Peter and on the other by the crocodile and he chooses the more noble death by the croc. But in his final moment he gives Peter an opening to play dirty and kick him to the sea, thereby displaying the highest fault of “Bad form!”—Hook’s last words as he plummets to his death. Hook cannot break out from the inner struggle he’s placed on himself. He is at odds with the conventions of blue-blooded, civilized society, and the life he leads as a Pirate. While he seeks to carry out his treacherous acts with civility and nobility—and succeeds; he is not without fairness or consideration—he is forever critiquing himself as to whether he has upheld his code. Hook also feels isolated, a mismatch who is above the dogged crew around him, one who must set an example for them; but perhaps he needs an example for himself? apperences and theories In the Disney films, Hook is portrayed as a coward and a joke, who is as far from the original character even going so far as to yell "blast good form!" In Hook, Hook is also protrayed as a coward but a more ruthless one as he actually goes into battle and kills. He's also portrayed as a man who loves extravagant things. In the 2003 live-action version , Hook is ruthless and cunning. It's not any specific scene exactly, but the whole sequence where Wendy is captured by Hook and his pirates hints at how dark and twisted the man is. Hook is directly paralleled with Peter himself - he is pretty much an old and embittered version of Peter. Certainly, his pirates are parallel to the Lost Boys , and Wendy 's role as 'mother' to the Lost Boys is repeated with the pirates, so the scenes he has with Wendy hint at a possible dark relaionship. The relationship between Wendy and Hook is uncomfortable for adult viewers in this adaption since Hook's usurping of Pan's role extends to having Wendy as a partner in crime - but this is only because they perceive the sexuality underlying the relationship between Peter and Wendy. In his second scene with Wendy on board the Jolly Roger, when he has her lashed to the mast and is basically trying to terrify information out of her Hook is no longer treating her as an adult treats a child, they seemed almost like equals, and that let veiwers believe that he might go too far. And the way they were so close, with his face even touching her as he held her tightly with his hook at her throat - well, it had a weird, dangerous eroticism to it that really made many veiwers uneasy. In the SyFy 2 part Film Neverland , Hook is demanding and violent. He taught fencing at an academy and becmae a pirate when he donned his segnature hook and robe when he came to Neverland . The crocodile represents old age. The ticking alarm clock represents time ticking on despite efforts to stop it. Also, old age cannot be defeated or killed and, like the croc, will pursue relentlessly. Hook was terrified because when the croc (age) caught him he would die, and Peter Pan is his mortal enemy because Pan is immune to the affects of age. The fact that the clock ran out right before Peter took to the ship could very well be a symbol that Hook’s time was up. And as Peter said “It’s Hook or me this time” it was obvious that Hook was going down. See also *Captain Hook at Neverpedia Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:deceased